


come pick me up

by trebleclef2011



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/M, bosami week 2012
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-26
Updated: 2012-08-26
Packaged: 2017-11-12 22:20:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trebleclef2011/pseuds/trebleclef2011
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After they visit the South Pole to fix Korra, Asami and Bolin move on with their lives.  (all prompts from Bosami Week 2012)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. starlight

.

.

.

 

It's nighttime.  Asami sits outside in the snow, bundled in her winter coat and a turtleduck-down blanket she’d brought with her from home.  Even though it’s far below freezing, she can’t stop the tears from falling down her face.   She sits over the vast expanse of water, looking at the twinkling lights reflected in it.  She wipes her eyes every few minutes, looking for a reason to stop.  She can’t find one.




 

She suddenly hears footsteps behind her and wipes her eyes quickly, rubbing them red as she tries to get rid of the snot that had come out of her nose as she was sobbing.  She turns quickly to identify her visitor and sees that it’s her ex-boyfriend’s brother.  Bolin. 

 

"Oh, hey," Asami says, trying to sound happy and normal.  She is - or at least, she used to be - the heiress to a machinery empire.  She should have it together, shouldn't she?

 

"What are you looking at?" Bolin says cheerfully, his cheeks pink with the cold and the effort of walking outside.  His new coat kept him warm enough, but he wasn't used to the temperature out here.  Asami felt the same, but she couldn't find a free minute or place secluded enough to just have a good cry.  She'd been holding it in for about a week.

 

"Just the ocean," Asami says back, looking over at the earthbender and smiling.  It's not her strongest smile, but her years in the spotlight, as a result of her inventor father's celebrity, have taughter her to put on a brave face.

 

"Hey," Bolin says, looking at her and seeing the redness and slight swelling around her eyes and noticing the tear tracks, "Are you okay?"

 

"I'll be fine," Asami says, bringing the heel of her hand up to rub her eye again.  Her makeup washed off a while ago.

 

"You can tell me what the problem is," Bolin offers.  "Or not.  I'm a good listener, and I can give you a hug, if you want."

 

"That's sweet," Asami says.  She doesn't think she'll tell him, but then it bubbles up and she starts sobbing again.  It's slow at first.  She sinks into herself and pulls the blanket more tightly around her shoulders as the wind picks up a bit, the breeze ruffling her hair.  He waits patiently for her to speak, or to cry, or to leave.  He’s good at waiting.

 

"It's just...I've been thinking about my father a lot recently.  About what he did...and then at that airfield..." Asami buries her head in her arms, suddenly overcome and begins sobbing more and more.  Her black hair falls in waves, hiding her face from his view.  Her voice shakes violently as she sobs, and gets a few more words out.

 

“I really think…he wanted to kill me.”  Bolin’s heart breaks when he hears this.  Asami is turned completely inward, her back curved against the world, the blanket wrapped tightly as if to hold her together.

 

She doesn’t notice Bolin’s intense, mournful gaze on her, his face shifting as he realizes what she’s been doing for the past few days.  Disappearing without a word to anyone, probably to come out on this ledge and look out over the ocean, crying salty tears into the cold air as she mourns her broken relationship with her father.  He realizes that it’s worse for her, losing her father, because she knew him.  She’d learned his ways throughout her life, and realized that he’d lied to her.  He wasn’t killed; he chose this.  And she was left without anyone, abandoned.

 

Suddenly she feels warm arms around her back, and she leans into them as she cries harder and harder. 

 

"I don't know how that must feel," Bolin says, gripping her tighter in his strong, warm embrace, "but I know," and he pulls away to look at her, so that she will understand him, "you are one of the best people I know, Asami."

 

Asami can't say anything, with her face a mess of tears.  Her lip quivers and Bolin wraps his arms around her tighter.  He pulls her up more so that she can rest her head on his shoulder as she cries.  He's only sixteen, but he's good at comfort.  He's good at hugs.  He can do this, at least.  Asami eventually gives out, the last of her reserves dissolving at the pressure of his arms around her.  It's not like her mother's embrace, but she hasn't really had much physical reassurance in a long, long time.  Mako was the last person who came this close to making her feel this safe.

 

"It's going to be fine," Bolin says finally.  "I know you.  You are so strong.  You can overcome anything, especially this.  You overcame this stupid drama with my idiot brother, so I know you'll be just fine."

 

Asami leans into him, her tears slowing and her breathing becoming more and more regular as he rubs her back.  He doesn’t whisper anything, but his steady breathing soothes her, something like her mother used to when she was very young, before she’d lost her.  It is familiar, and new.  It is different. 

 

She sits up, looking the earthbender in the face.  She smiles when his bright grin appears.  He's a good kid.  He'll be a good man, and soon.

 

"Thanks, Bolin," she says, and gets up to walk back to the compound, where everyone else has likely fallen asleep.  She fluffs her hair back over her shoulders, wrapping her blanket around herself, holding the edges together.  "Walk me back?"  She smiles tentatively, still sore from all of the crying, but hoping that someday she’d believe him.

 

"Yes, ma'am," he says, and offers her his arm.

 

Asami chuckles despite herself, the laugh hasty, but joyous.  She reaches out to him.

 

“See?” Bolin says once she put her arm through his.  “That wasn’t so hard.”

 

Asami looks over at the boy’s face as they walk through the snow together. 

 

“No, it wasn’t.”

 

This is the beginning.

 

.

.

.


	2. drive

.

.

.

In the heat of the day, Asami wipes her sweaty forehead as the sun beats down on it, ready to go home, to do anything that won’t involve another faulty carburetor or broken fuel belt. She’s tired of looking at spark plugs that only need to be set closer together. 

Asami tells her head mechanic to finish the repairs for the day so that she can do something - anything else. Not that she doesn’t love her job, but it gets tiring. 

When she gets back into her own car after stripping off her oil-covered overalls, wiping the smudges from her face, she sees Bolin walking up to the service entrance of the Future Industries factory with a smile on his face.

“Bolin?”

“Hey, Asami!” Bolin looks the same as ever, maybe a little taller after a few months, but smiling and enthusiastic.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, I haven’t seen you very much lately, and I thought we could do something fun.”

“You want to do something fun with me?”

“Yeah, why not?” Bolin says. His wide grin convinces her.

“Okay, just let me get cleaned up.”

“But you look fine,” Bolin says.

“That’s sweet, but I haven’t bathed in two days and I spent all that time in this shop,” she points out. “Do you mind if I get something else to wear?”

“Sure.”

.

.

.

When Asami exits her room after an hour, her hair is wet and her makeup is barely there, but she’s as ready as she can get. They’re just getting takeout, anyway.

“So what did you have in mind?” she asks, walking into the foyer of her house, grabbing her purse as she walks out of the doorway into the driveway.

“Not much, actually,” Bolin says. “We could get something to eat.”

“Okay.”

They find a place with takeout and get five different dishes of noodles, rice, eggrolls, dumplings, and turkey-chicken.

Asami starts driving, looking for a quiet place they can sit and eat in peace. Both she and Bolin have gotten more than enough attention by reporters that they don’t care to deal with, but it was starting to die down. Even so, the city was loud and bustling, and she needed peace.

“Turn right here,” Bolin says, pointing up ahead. 

They start going up a slope around one of the mountains surrounding the city, where there are cliffs overlooking the ocean.

They reach the top, finally, and Asami parks near the edge. 

“Gimme that,” she says, looking at the brown bag Bolin has in his lap. He hands over the carton of rice and she digs into it immediately, almost not pausing to get a pair of chopsticks. 

“Did they feed you today?” Bolin says.

“I skipped lunch…I was working on a project,” she says through a mouthful of rice. Bolin’s face drops. 

“Oh. You shouldn’t overwork yourself so much.”

“It’s the job, you know?” Asami says, pausing with her mouth full of rice. She swallows before looking over at him, noticing him probably for the first time that night. “I have to invent things and deal with businesses and suppliers and then I have to do repairs for customers from time to time, especially when these prototype cars need to be built just right, and it’s just,” she stops, lowering the food and looking aimlessly up at the roof of the car. “exhausting.”

“The cars look really good, if that says anything,” Bolin says, biting into a meat bun.

“Thanks,” she says. She closes her eyes and it takes great force to open them back up again.

“I’m just so tired,” she says.

“Hey,” Bolin says. “You’re fine. You just need to take some time for yourself.” He eats a mouthful of turkey-chicken and swallows. “We should do this more often.”

“Drive to clifftops to eat cheap takeout?”

“Well, that, and talking. I don’t see you a lot anymore, and you’re my friend, Asami.”

Asami’s head is resting on the seat, turned in his direction. She almost feels like crying, because she hasn’t had a real friend come over to say hello in a very long time.

“Thanks, Bolin,” she says.

“I just miss you, is all,” he says.

“You don’t have to miss me. I’m always in the same place.”

“I know,” he says, looking back at her. 

Asami looks away abruptly, feeling her face heat as she turns away from Bolin’s gaze. He’s really growing up, she thinks.

“Hey,” he says, changing the subject, “You should come to some of our matches when they start next week.”

“I might be a little busy…”

“Please?” he says, his eyes flickering to hers.

“Okay,” she says. “I’ll try to be there.”

“Thanks, Asami.”

They talk for hours longer once the food is gone, and Asami begins driving back to her house, remembering that he needs to go to his as well. 

“Pro-bending arena?”

“Yeah.”

Asami drives there, Bolin strumming up a conversation about Mako and Korra, and then what teams they’ll be playing in the upcoming matches and what they think their odds are.

“They new recruits aren’t the best yet, but they should get better with time…I think,” Bolin says, his nervousness apparent.

“I think you’ll be fine,” Asami says, smiling.

“You do?”

“Yeah, I mean, you’re a great earthbender.”

“Thanks,” he says, not knowing how to respond. He looks away this time, blushing from her flattery. “You don’t have to say that.”

“It’s true, though,” Asami says as they pull up in front of the glittering structure.

“I’ll see you around,” she says.

“Yeah,” Bolin says, grinning. “Bye, Asami!”

Asami smiles as her car backs up to turn around, and Bolin still stands on the steps of the arena as she drives away.

Bolin walks inside, thinking over and over his time with Asami. It hadn’t been a date, but he was suddenly wishing it had been, wishing he’d kissed her, wishing he’d been more obvious.

“Stupid!” he says to himself once he makes it up the ladder into his apartment. It’s a bit of a mess. He picks up a shirt and throws it into his room before collapsing on the couch, bringing his hands up to his face and groaning into them.

He hopes she’ll show up next week, but she’s practically a princess. 

Mako comes through the door, looking around at his brother’s mess to find his brother. When he sees his dejected expression, he asks.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just a moron, never mind.”

“Trouble with women?”

Bolin gives him a look and turns over. 

.

.

.

As soon as Asami gets back to her home, she calls Korra and asks her if it’s alright if she comes over. Korra answers the phone in a sleepy haze, and Asami decides to come tomorrow.

In the early morning, she drives over, and picks Korra up in her car. They drive aimlessly through the city, no destination in sight, and Asami is speeding.

Korra grips her seat so tightly that her fingers burst through the leather in small divots. They stop at a light abruptly.

“Asami! Slow down!”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“I think I’m having feelings for someone.”

“Who?” Korra asks, wondering why she would ask her to talk about this sort of thing.

“Uh,” Asami says, not wanting to tell.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Korra says. “Let’s get some food. Food always helps.”

The girls go by and get ice cream in the market and sit in her car to eat it. 

“I’ve just never felt like this before.”

“Not even with Mako?”

“No.”

“Wow,” Korra says. “It’s serious, then?”

“Yeah…” Asami says. “He’s just a really good person…and I don’t know if I’m right for him.”

“Just tell him how you feel,” Korra says. “You won’t get anywhere if you don’t.”

“Okay,” Asami says before looking at her half-full cone of chocolate ice cream.

“Are you gonna eat that?” Korra asks.

“No.”

“Can I have it?”

.

.

.


End file.
